Comfort
by Adventurer411
Summary: "It was j-just..." Aelita swallowed past the lump in her throat and tried again. "It w-was just a n-nightmare..." The strong outer shield she had built around herself crumbled. Aelita burst into tears, doubling over and burying her face in her hands.


**Comfort**

She tapped the program. It wasn't responding.

"Jeremy, we have a problem!" Aelita exclaimed, trying not to panic and continually trying to get the program to work. "Oh no! I finally finished my program for defeating Xana but we don't have enough power to run it!" Jeremy exclaimed, obviously devastated. Aelita felt her heart sink.

Yumi and Ulrich weren't doing to well with William, Odd was with Jeremy, and she was all alone on Lyoko at the mercy of Xana's monsters. She cried out and fell to one knee as a manta shot her in the stomach.

Suddenly there was a glowing orb in front of her. The mantas were shooting it.

"Daddy no!" Aelita gasped, attempting to shoot the mantas with two energy fields. They deftly maneuvered their way around it, continuing to shoot the orb.

"What could Franz Hopper possibly be doing?" Jeremy asked himself. He stared at the screen for a few moments more, and his eyes widened. "Try launching the program now!" He urged.

"But, but my father…" she said, trailing off. "Aelita, your father is supplying the necessary energy to launch the program. Do it now," Jeremy said.

"No…

NO!" she exclaimed, once again shooting an energy field at the mantas. It missed and they continued flying around him, shooting.

"Aelita," Jeremy called in an unmistakable tone of urgency, "If you don't launch the program now, your father's sacrifice will have been for nothing! Do it now. DO IT!" He commanded.

Aelita set up the final part of the program, and pressed her palm to the interface, launching it. She watched as her father exploded in a burst of pixels.

"NO!" she half gasped, half cried.

Aelita turned over in bed, involuntarily letting out a scream. Her eyes flew open and she gripped the covers, giving a sharp intake of breath as she felt the loss of her father crash over her like a wave. It had been three weeks since his death.

She sat up and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force back tears and hoping to burn out the image of her father's death.

The pink haired girl sat in bed, feeling empty inside. Suddenly her door flew open. In the doorway stood none other than Sissi, in her pajamas with a death glare on her face.

"You again? It's 4:23 in the morning! I need my beauty sleep, so quiet down will you?" The angry girl snarled, slamming the door before Aelita had a chance to comment.

The pink haired girl cringed. Sissi's angry yelling wasn't at all helping her loss.

Aelita lay back down, tightly clutching Mr. Puck and trying not to cry. _I hope I didn't wake up any of the other girls… _she thought. The last she wanted and needed was a bunch of angry girls at her door because she had a nightmare.

Little did Aelita know, she hadn't woken any girls besides Sissi. But one blond boy in particular stirred.

Jeremy was sleeping lightly when he heard a thought he heard a faint scream. He slowly sat up, blearily rubbing his eyes and swinging his feet onto the floor. Shortly after he heard a muffled voice, then what sounded like a... door slamming?

Retrieving his glasses, Jeremy stretched and poked his head out of the door, scanning the halls for any sign of Jim as he preceded upstairs to the girls' dorms. He tiptoed down the hall to Aelita's room, and…

Aelita was still trying to hold back tears without much success when there was a knock at her door. Using her covers, she quickly wiped her eyes and sat up in bed, settling sock footed on the floor. She hoped it wasn't a different girl she had awoken with her scream.

Aelita was fairly surprised when her door swung open to reveal Jeremy. His hair was ruffled as if he had just gotten out of bed (Which was logical, since it _was _the middle of the night) and he was in his pajamas.

"Jeremy, why are you up so late?" She asked. "I heard a scream and a door slam… I wanted to see if you were OK," he replied, his cheeks tinting red.

"Yes, I'm fine," Aelita said, hiding her distress quite well for a girl who just witnessed her father's death a second time. "Are… are you sure? Did you have another nightmare?" He asked, unintentionally letting concern seep into his tone. Aelita's mask of confidence faltered for a moment. "Yes, but I'm fine," she insisted. This only proved to increase Jeremy's worry.

"Which… which one was it?" he asked uncertainly.

"It was… my-my father's death," she answered, biting her lip and trying to maintain a calm demeanor.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Jeremy asked gently, his voice full of concern a mother might give to a child. Suddenly she felt angry.

Why did she have to be the weak one? Yumi, Ulrich, or Odd wouldn't need comforting if they had a bad dream. Did Jeremy think of her as some sort of baby…?

"Honestly Jeremy I'm fine, I'm not a baby. I can take care of myself," Aelita snapped angrily. Jeremy withdrew a little in surprise. Almost as soon as it came, the anger dissolved into sadness.

It was overwhelming, and Aelita almost broke. She just managed to regain her composure, squeezing her eyes shut in hope to prevent tears and looking at the floor, clenching her fists. Her lower lip trembled, and she felt a hand on her looked up into Jeremy's face, and she couldn't stand it anymore.

She had snapped at him and he nevertheless was still worried. His expression was one of concern, worry, and maybe even some… passion?

Despite her protests, Jeremy could see tears welling up in the corners of her eyes that she was obviously trying to prevent. He put an encouraging hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up into his eyes.

His comforting hand on her shoulder, his caring face. It was all too much. _Come on, _she thought. _Just wait a little while longer until he leaves. Then you can cry if you need to, _she told herself. Her mind told her she could not cry a little longer, but apparently her heart told her otherwise.

"Are you sure you're not upset?" he asked her. "Y-yes, I'm… fine it's just a nightma-" She stopped; blinking rapidly and taking a shaky breath, trying to continue. "It was j-just a n-nightmare…." The strong outer shield she had built around herself crumbled.

Aelita burst into tears, doubling over and burying her face in her hands.

"Oh, Aelita…" Jeremy gasped softly, grasping her by the shoulders. He suspected she might be upset, but not devastated. He had never seen her break down like this.

"It's …" he said gently, pulling her into his embrace."J-Jer-remy!" she cried brokenly. Aelita wrapped her arms around him, crying into his buttoned shirt and shaking with sobs. Jeremy held her tight, a little unsure of what to do.

Suddenly the door opened behind him. "What is all that racket?" Sissi exclaimed angrily. "I thought I told you to quiet dow-" her angry expression disappeared as she caught sight of Aelita. "What… what's wrong?" she asked Jeremy softly. Jeremy turned his head around and scowled at her, still holding Aelita. "She had a nightmare. Your yelling isn't helping, so why don't you just go back to bed," he snapped.

Sissi stepped back into her room without complaint or protest, closing the door behind her.

"I-I'm sorry… Jeremy-y," Aelita sniffed, still holding him tightly. "I c-cant help it... I'm trying not to but-" Jeremy interrupted her. "Shh. that's silly, don't apologize. You haven't done anything. None if this is your fault," he comforted her.

She withdrew, wiping her eyes.

"It-it's ok. I'm ok now," Aelita said shakily. "Y-You can go back…. You can go back to bed n-now Jeremy," she tried to convince him. He looked Aelita over. She was obviously not ok. She looked like she was holding back more tears. "I know that you're still upset," Jeremy said as he gently took her hand, leading her over to the bed and closing the door with his foot.

"But… but…" she tried. Jeremy sat down on the bed, motioning for her to sit. "Why didn't you tell me you were so upset Aelita?" he asked, taking her hand with his opposite, holding her one hand gently with both of his.

"B-Because you n-need to get some sleep… J-Jeremy," she sniffed, wiping her eyes with her free hand. "And you can't do that if I…. if I k-keep you up…" For many months, Jeremy had been working almost nonstop on the freeing William and the multi-agent program. So he rarely got any sleep, and when he did, it was uneasy sleep as he worried about his friends, Xana, Lyoko, and most of all, Aelita. She wasn't going to disturb his sleep now just because she had a dream.

Aelita let go of Jeremy's hands and folded her arms, hugging herself like she was cold.

"That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard," Jeremy scolded her. "If you are upset, you can always, always, _always _come talk to me about it. Ok?" he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

When she didn't respond, he added: "Promise me that next time you have a nightmare, or you're just upset that you'll come talk to me about it, or at least talk to Yumi? It's not good to keep things like this to yourself. It just hurts you more."

Aelita slowly turned her head to him, giving a small nod. "Ok, I promise," she said. Jeremy smiled warmly. "Good. Thank you," he said.

She shivered. Jeremy stood up, pulling the covers and laying them over Aelita's lap. "Thank you…"

"Would you like to talk about the nightmare?" he asked gently, not wanting to invoke any more pain. They both leaned against the wall, and Aelita subconsciously rested her head on Jeremy's shoulder and threaded her arm with his, drawing a blush from him.

"It… It's not fair that he had to die…" she sniffed. "I know Aelita, I know…." He noticed more tears streaming down her face, so he pulled her closer, giving her a hug. "Thank you Jeremy…" Aelita cried, holding him tight. "For what?" he asked. "For being with me when I need you…"

Jeremy let her cry a few minutes in silence in his arms and in silence.

"Now that my father is gone, I have no one. No family..." Aelita cried softly. "I'm... I'm all alone..." This prospect frightened her a little, and made her extremely sad. "Please don't leave me Jeremy, please don't leave..." she whimpered, hugging him tighter. It made his heart ache to see her in such a state of distress. "Don't leave me J-Jeremy..." he heard her whimper softly once more.

"I promise I won't. I would never leave you. I _could never_ leave you," Jeremy consoled her, stroking her hair comfortingly. "And it's not true that you're all alone. We're all your family. Yumi, Odd, Ulrich, and me. "You're not alone. We are your family, and we're here for you," he told Aelita.

She withdrew and looked at him through tear-streaked eyes. "I have one great family," she said, sinking back into his comforting embrace. Jeremy smiled. "You do." Jeremy held her quietly for the next few minutes.

"Can I… can I tell you something?" he began hesitantly. "Of course Jeremy, you can tell me anything," Aelita replied, feeling a little less sad and lonely. Jeremy felt his heart skip a few beats and was suddenly aware of how it was pounding loudly against his chest.

"Well, you kn-know… you know I really care about you right? I mean, I really like you and I don't want you to be sad…" he stammered, wishing that the moonlight wasn't illuminating their faces, revealing his red cheeks.

Jeremy gently wiped a tear gently off her face. She looked at him with surprise. To show his true affection, Jeremy tentatively placed a kiss on her cheek, and pulled her into another hug so she wouldn't see his furious blush. "Please don't cry Aelita..." This time she hugged tightly back, but not out of sadness.

This time Aelita kissed him, and square on the lips. She pulled back leaving a dazed, surprised, madly blushing, but not unhappy Jeremy to stare at her.

The pink haired girl giggled and laid her head on his shoulder. "Thank you, Jeremy. Thank you for making me feel _so_ much better…." Aelita said wearily, yawning.

"That's ok," he gushed, flushing red.

A few minutes later her slow breathing told Jeremy she was asleep. So as not to wake her, he carefully stood, laying her back down with her head on the pillow.

Then he pulled the covers up to her shoulder and grabbed Mister Puck, who was on the floor, and wrapped her arm around him.

Aelita smiled and Jeremy thought he heard her mumble his name. He smiled at his angel. "Goodnight," he said softly, brushing a strand of pink hair out of her face.

Jeremy walked out of the room and slowly opened and closed the door, tiptoeing back down the stairs to his room. He walked in and closed the door behind him, collapsing on his bed.

With a happy sigh, Jeremy drifted off into the best night of sleep he had had for months….

END

**Did you like it? You can obviously tell I'm a fan of Jerlita, because basically all my stories are…. You may be wondering: What does Adventurer411 do when she isn't writing Jerlita? Good question…. I'm writing a story for Kung Fu panda, and I'll probably write about Artemis Fowl (Awesome book series) in the future. I may even write about some MillyxHiroki…. **

**But for now that's it, so if you're a fan of Jerlita visit my profile and check out my stories! Almost all of them are Jerlita…. **


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